Community leaders gathered at the Statehouse Tuesday to speak out against proposed federal cuts to environmental protection programs. They focused on concerns for public health. President Donald Trump's proposed budget would cut Environmental Protection Agency funding by about 23 percent.

Community leaders called on Indiana's Congressional representatives to oppose the cuts ahead of the approval deadline.

Today: On this Reporters Roundtable Thursday, we talk to Lauren Cross and Sarah Reese of the "Times of Northwest Indiana" about their stories offered in print and online. Both reporters' stories include updates on the city of East Chicago's dealings with federal agencies over the USS Lead Superfund site and the federally-financed public housing projects that were built on it -- before it became a Superfund project. We also bring you the complete "Indiana and Blizzard of 1978" 40th anniversary feature from Network Indiana. You can find it at 15:33 into today's program podcast.

The cleanup for part of an East Chicago, Indiana toxic waste site will cost nearly four times more than originally expected. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the site’s cleanup, will open an opportunity for public comments Monday, Dec. 18.

The EPA initially estimated cleanup for the residential area of the USS Lead Superfund site would cost $23 million. But, a new agency report says the estimate should be closer to $85 million.

More than 30 East Chicago homeowners last week sued several companies the federal government holds responsible for toxic industrial contamination.

Those companies include DuPont, Atlantic Richfield, British Petroleum, U.S.S. Lead and Mueller Industries.

The lawsuit alleges those companies caused property loss to residents who live in a lead-contaminated Superfund site and that, “[f]or decades, Defendants’ lead smelting, lead refining, and other manufacturing processes wreaked environmental havoc in the Calumet neighborhood of East Chicago.”

Keesha Daniels just moved from one lead contaminated neighborhood to another.

Both her new house and her old West Calumet Housing Complex apartment sit within East Chicago’s USS Lead Superfund site. The city is tearing down her old home because of extremely high levels of lead in the soil. So she had to move.

Daniels is still unpacking. Most rooms have a pile of boxes stacked tidily in a corner. Two heavy dressers sit in one otherwise empty room — her sons are coming later to move them. As Daniels takes me on a tour of her new house, she offers me some water.